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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Luke 17:2 - 17:2
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
It were well for him (lusitelei autōi). An old word, but only here in the N.T., from lusitelēs and this from luō, to pay, and ta telē, the taxes. So it pays the taxes, it returns expenses, it is profitable. Literally here, “It is profitable for him” (dative case, autōi). Matthew has sumpherei (it is advantageous, bears together for).
If a millstone were hanged (ei lithos mulikos perikeitai). Literally, “if a millstone is hanged.” Present passive indicative from perikeimai (to lie or be placed around). It is used as a perfect passive of peritithēmi. So it is a first-class condition, determined as fulfilled, not second-class as the English translations imply. Mulikos is simply a stone (lithos), belonging to a mill. Here only in the text of Westcott and Hort, not in Mar 9:42 which is like Mat 18:6 mulos onikos where the upper millstone is turned by an ass.
Were thrown (erriptai). Perfect passive indicative from rhiptō, old verb. Literally, is thrown or has been thrown or cast or hurled. Mark has beblētai and Matthew katapontisthēi, which see, all three verbs vivid and expressive. Rather than (ē). The comparative is not here expressed before ē as one would expect. It is implied in lusitelei. See the same idiom in Luk 15:7.